I am always fascinated by the demonstration of the high-voltage system at the Deutsches Museum in Munich: Arcs of light move purposefully through the room, the smell of ozone fills the air and a person sits calmly in a Faraday cage while 270,000 volts buzz around the sphere. A few meters below, visitors stand and watch the spectacle in amazement. What they all have in common is the confidence that nothing can happen to them - confidence in the technology and in the people who operate it.

Technology is a wonderful thing. Over the centuries, technological achievements have simplified people's lives. Just think of the industrial revolutions: In the first industrial revolution in the second half of the 18th century, mechanical processes were introduced. (The driving force was the steam engine. The advent of electricity and assembly line production at the beginning of the 20th century marked the second industrial revolution and ushered in mass production. The beginning of the 1970s and the introduction of the computer marked the start of the third industrial revolution and the automation of production facilities progressed rapidly. At the beginning of the 2000s, the fourth industrial revolution began: cyber-physical systems were used to link real objects and virtual processes - creating the smart factory.

It should not be forgotten that every advance also led to skepticism and debate in society. However, every revolution was followed by an economic upturn and technological progress made life easier or more flexible: from carriages to cars, from radio to streaming services, from telephones to smartphones. In addition, standardization bodies and legislation provided the necessary framework to protect users. This led to people gaining confidence - in technology and in the way they use it.

The first cover picture of Computer&Automation from 1998.

© WFM

The fourth industrial revolution is also causing skepticism and debate in society: the advance of networking is turning people into "transparent citizens" and the increasing use of robots could result in job losses. And then there is artificial intelligence. Experts recently issued a highly publicized warning with just one sentence: "Reducing the risk of annihilation by AI should be a global priority alongside other risks to society, such as pandemics and nuclear war." Dystopias such as the Matrix, iRobot or Terminator were quickly invoked to underpin the potential danger of AI.

Some people will roll their eyes, but people's fears should be taken seriously. Questions need to be asked: Where does the skepticism come from? Are they perhaps right? And - fundamentally - do we really understand artificial intelligence at all? These are questions with which we confronted Prof. Dr. Matthias Spörrle (see page 28 in the e-paper). As a professor of business psychology with a research focus on 'Human decision-making processes in digital and economic contexts', he also assesses the potential dangers of AI: "The fact that people usurp power through tools is really nothing new. AI is also used in this way. So far, the danger has not come from the technology itself, but from those who misuse it."

And that brings us back to the beginning: do you trust the technology and the people who use it?

Your opinion on the subject: Write to Andrea Gillhuber